Iiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiiyiyi!  A heart-stopping squeal tore through the evening air. I stopped typing and listened. Silence Shiiit.   Was that an animal?  Iyiyiyiyyyiiyiyiyiyi!    Again the same cry. Maybe it’s a bird, I thought desperately, afraid to look out my window to the street below. Iyiyiyiyyyiiyiyiyiyi!    Nope, definitely not a bird. I reluctantly got up and looked out…Read more »

Tonight I walked home through a tunnel of blue light and then, later, a canopy of white light.  I was wrong about the other park.  The blue lights are not squares as in my park, which I now know is names “Grand Park” (aptly named), rather they are single stands for what are basically street…Read more »

After two years of living in extremely trying environments, albeit for completely different reasons, the housing gods have finally interceded on my behalf, although I admit, I had to give them a little push when the realtor took me out apartment-shopping. There is apparently a plethora of different fully furnished, including linens and dishes, apartments…Read more »

I am in heaven, I can’t deny it.  As I gaze out the living room window of my apartment in Dushanbe, day or night, I am struck by the beauty that stretches out as far as the eye can see before me.   My new home is right across the park from one side of the…Read more »

Why your husband leave so beautiful lady?   The Istanbul cab driver was unabashedly flirting with me.  Of course, it was 40+ years ago, but I didn’t bother to make that clarification. 68!    You look so young?    I am 55.  I look old? Ah, no, you look your age. Of course this entire conversation was taking…Read more »

Miss Hawkinson?   An unfamiliar voice inquired over the phone. Yes…  You came to register your vehicle today?  Yes… Well, we do not have the paperwork that we need to register your car so I must void the application.  I brought everything that the dealership gave me and the woman who screens us before we get…Read more »

Wowee!  This gal has finally entered the 21st century. I have a new friend.  I don’t know her face, but I know her voice and now, thanks to her cleverness, I can travel from point A to point B in any direction, in any town, in any state, maybe in any country, I haven’t tried…Read more »

I walk into the house.  The air is cool and there is a strange smell.   I can’t quite put my finger on it.   My new brass statue of  Shiva, the god of destruction and transformation, adorned with turquoise, coral and lapis, stands proudly on the granite counter, facing what my neighbor said was the…Read more »

I have just written a textbook, actually a Student’s Manual, a Teacher’s Manual, and a Workbook to accompany them.  I know that they will probably never be used as they were intended, if they are used at all, but it doesn’t change the fact that completing the project gives me a sense of personal and…Read more »

Was it just yesterday that I sat in Istanbul’s new airport contemplating on how many different airports and how many different capital cities I have visited in the world over the course of my lifetime?    The fact is that, using the U.S. Department of States divisions of the world into six regions — Sub-Saharan Africa,…Read more »